Let’s start off with an email from HelloFresh. They’re grabbing our attention with the seasonal pumpkin spice craze, but giving us more than the expected latte. It’s an easy target for them to hit with their food-focused subscribers and the mouth-watering photography to get us clicking for more. This was a well-timed theme with solid content to keep subscribers clicking and reading. I was slightly confused with the subject line “8 ways to pumpkin spice up your life” followed up by a hero message of “6 Pumpkin Spice Recipes (that aren’t lattes)”in an email only containing 3 recipes. But who’s counting when there’s tasty treats in front of you, right? And I did go clicking to find those pumpkin spice pancakes they mentioned.

One of my favorite things to find in an email is balance. Maintain your brand, provide new content, and embrace the season. It can be a challenge, and it takes finesse to get it right. AllModern got it right. Their hero image reflects their style but doesn’t conform to the typical halloween or fall imagery. They used copy to provide a modern splash of color which is then perfectly mirrored in the meticulously selected images that follow. It fits with the season, but they didn’t sacrifice their brand or style to accomplish it. The only change I’d like to make is centering their buttons below the images and add the left aligned copy to the button. This would simply the content below the image, allow the button to be larger, and align with the button placement on their website.

Next up, is a Michaels email. Do they send emails too frequently that are too long? Yes, but I sleep better knowing I always have a valid coupon and won’t miss an item I didn’t know I needed. I am also a sucker for a well-done animated gif and today Michaels sent me just that. This animation doesn’t only catch a crafty readers attention, it also provides additional content and inspiration within a few seconds. Plus with the high likelihood subscribers won’t scroll and the extra effort put into gifs, they’ve rightfully placed this profitable content at the top so it can’t be missed. They’ve taken the classic pumpkin and added a creative spin to excite their subscriber. It’s simple, yet valuable.

And finally the bizarre… Cards Against Humanity. Doing bizarre and weird things with their emails (and their money) is nothing unusual for this team. This season they’ve managed to roll Halloween, candy, AND politics into one simple email while still getting laughs. The subject line “Remember to Vote Worms” undoubtedly stands out in the inbox. However, opening this email won’t lead to the typical, robust design. It’s as basic as you can get. They rely on the established interest of their subscribers, timing, and copy. “Buy some Halloween candy, remind your neighbors to vote.” This email example is a good reminder to keep it simple, know your customer, maintain your brand, and work with your available resources.

From: StarbucksDate: 8/24/18Subject Line: College students are obsessed with these five drinks

Starbucks sent out this email informing subscribers which drinks are most popular based on location demographic. I was personally intrigued to know how tastes varied across the country. It’s a fun and interesting concept that could be applied to other types of retailers.

While it was the content that drove my interest in this email, some elements of the design are nice as well. Starbucks narrows their focus on popular drinks among college students. To keep with the casual college vibe, they use photography that resembles something you’d see on Instagram, rather than in a studio. The pictures are also taped to the email adding to the theme, interest and color. Staggering the photos gives it nice flow and balance.

There are a few things I would change, however. While I do like that the hero looks like it’s in a college stadium, it is rather large, pushing everything (including the headline) below the fold. The call-to-action is also at the very bottom of the email. I have a couple ideas about how to give this email more click-appeal. 1) Below each demographic, add a line saying “Would you try this?” [yes] [no] and display the live (percentage) results in the email. 2) Add a CTA to each drink: “Order online for pickup.”

We’ve seen it before: emails that refresh the content each time you visit. Mostly it’s been used to count down the time until a sale ends. Well, Panera has come up with an innovative way to use live email updates. They ask subscribers to vote for their favorite Mac & Cheese creation, with the email displaying the live results! What a cool way to get customers up-to-date information that’s also interactive. In this case, it was also a fun way to let customers know that new fall “Soups and Mac” have arrived.

The live results aren’t the only thing Panera is doing right in this email. They also animated the hero to grab my attention, used my name in the subject line and email to make it feel personal, and made the design mobile friendly. Nicely done!

I could see this strategy being used for other types of retailers. For instance, Gymboree recently had a vote-for-our-next-toddler-model contest. Wouldn’t it have been cool to see which child was “in the lead” in the email? I could also see a clothing retailer having shoppers vote on their favorite fall outfit. What about having subscribers vote what the next holiday “deal of the day” should be? The possibilities are endless!